... If I am allowed to lift a page from The Golden Bough: each year the sylvan landscape of old New Zealand provided 'the scene of a strange and recurring tragedy.' In a small sweet-potato garden set apart for the god, a Maori priest enacted a sacred marriage that would be worthy of his legendary colleague of the grove of Nemi. Accompanying his movements with a chant that included the phrase, 'Be pregnant, be pregnant', the priest planted the first hillocks (puke, also 'mons veneris') of the year's crop. The priest plays the part of the god Rongo (-marae-roa, Ha., Lono), he who originally brought the sweet potato in his penis from the spiritual homeland, to impregnate his wife (Pani, the field) ...

 

The penis of man corresponds to the beak of the bird.

 

It could, one might think, also correspond to the prow of a ship, but ships are female. On the prow of Pharaoh's ship down in the Underworld a swallow is perching, we have seen:

 

The swallow corresponds to the spirit of Pharaoh, and it functions as the bow-spr(ir)it, from which he will be reborn:

 

"sprit ... pole ... boom or pole crossing a sail diagonally ... f. Germ. *spreut- sprût-; see SPROUT ... sprout ... shoot forth, spring up ..." (English Etymology)

 

The strangely formed bow in the picture has 7 + 6 = 13 dotted oval forms in front and 8 on the back side (inside). Presumably these 8 + 13 ovals correspond to the dark time respectively the time when Pharaoh is alive again. Twice 21 is the number of judges in the Underworld:

 

 

Apparently kiakia must be connected with procreation. A further sign of this is rau (leaves), which exemplifies how life is returning from its dormant Underworld phase.

 

On Easter Island rau means 100 but in the Maori dialect it means 1000. The general idea is 'plenty' (of offspring).

 

The sweet potato (kumara) must be buried in order to sprout.